appreciate your time and your thoughts. >> that's viewpoint for tonight. stay tuned to enter the war room with jennifer gran home. >> i am jennifer granholm. tonight in the war room mitt, if you didn't want to dance with her, you shouldn't have asked her out in the first place. am i the only one who finds republicans confusing? here, i thought paul ryan was the chosen one, the boy wizard who would cast a spell of en chantment when they looked at mitt romney like meat loaf. the granted wish carries some dire consequence. so, run, republicans, run. paul ryan is coming to a swing state near you. and he is bringing his budget with him.

>> so, picture this: a political candidate running in a national race with this kind of approval rating plummeting over the last year from 24, really crummy to a measly 10% today. that is a lower favor ability rating than paris than the iraq war. the only person who has got a lower approval rating is fidel castro. this is not a winning candidate. political advisors would probably say to this person, maybe you should consider another line of work. so who is this deeply flawed mystery candidate? da-dah da-dah: congress since the tea party took the house in 2010, congress has congress's already crummy

approval itrating has taken a nose dive. who is the leader of the flawed tea party congress? actually not speaker john boehner. in reality, the de facto leader of the house republican caulk caucus is paul ryan. ryan has been a leader in congress's refusal to compromise with president obama and the democrats. he publically trashed the deficit deal. he -- which of course led us close to the brink of default and, of course, there is his own toxic budget which president reagan's budget advisor david stockman today called an empty conservative sermon and a fairy tale in "the new york times." nonetheless, 98%, 98% of all republicans in congress -- and that's all of these right here except for maybe those little ones right there, all of these

republicans in congress voted for ryan's budget. and for its blueprint to turn medicare into a voucher system. all of them. and mitt romney, by picking ryan, he has effectively yoked himself, handcuffed himself to that toxic congress and ryan's radioactive budget. and it's not going well. today, on fox news paul ryan himself, he tried to am pew tate the toxic limb from his budget plan. >> the budget plan that you are now supporting would get to balance when? >> well, there are different -- the budget plan that mitt romney is supporting gets us downing to 20% of gdp government spending by 2016. >> i understand that. but your own budget that you -- >> the house bunt? >> the house beaumont. >> yeah. >> the house budget everyone's talking about the house budget.

paul ryan's house budget. it's the central issue of the campaign. you know, kind of like frankenstein's monster romney has created the toxic avenger, a mutant that contaminates everything within its reach. did he know how this creation would spread and so quickly? actually, cranny senior advisor mark mckenan warned it would run on principles and provided vision for the republican party and probably lose. maybe big. it was the pick the toxic creation. paul ryan. it was the pick born of panic. it was a move made out of desperation. mid romney was seeing his poll numbers slipping under the toll of bain capital and his own daily flipflops and gaffes, so he lunched wildly to the right

to shake up the game and shore up his crumbling and probably suspicion base. but i wonder if romney in his heart of hearts might regret the decision. when asked today whether he would back his running mate's budget, romney was quick to say that it wasn't identical to his own plan, you know, he did so in a typical romney way. >> representative ryan has worked hard to find ways to see if we can't get to tracktorted a balanced budget. there are places my budget is different than his but we are on the same page. when mitt romney asked how their plans differ he couldn't quite say. >> the items that we agree on i think south way any differences. we haven't gone through piece by piece and say here is a place where there is a difference. i can't imagine two people in the same party who have exactly the same positions on all

issues. if we can't back the plan which was probably why i picked him how can he expect others? they can't. a lot of republicans are fleeing from ryan's radioactive budget. the gop is hoping to avoid getting contaminated themselves but it might already be too late. montana representative denny rayburg running for senate has made it a point to campaign against the ryan plan this summer. take a listen. >> denny rehberg, is different, an independent thinker. he refused to support a republican budget plan that could harm the medicare plan so many montana seniors rely on. >> in massachusetts rhode island, connecticut, they have all distanced flails paul ryan this week. democrat candidates are not letting this golden opportunity pass either. massachusetts senate candidate

elizabeth warren came out swinging yesterday hammering her republican scott brown for marching to paul ryan's looney tune. >> scott brown has said there is no one he trusts more on the economy than mitt romney. and mitt romney has picked paul ryan. but, you know, i think the point to remember here is that the romney-ryan part of this is something republican had already started and scott brown is deeply tied in to. >> this is just the beginning. you think this distancing is bad? just wait until people get a load of ryan's extreme positions on privatizing social security and other social issues. buckle your seat belts, folks. the monster that mitt has created cannot be stopped. it could poison his whole campaign. it might just take congressional republicans down with it. maybe democrats will be able to

occupy the majority in congress after all. so congratulations, mitt. you have succeeded in changing the conversation. the election shifted from being a referendum betweenpom and tall ryan's tea party-steeped house republican caulkcusaucus. good look with that. congressman ryan, i think i will just have myself a hot cup of earl gray and offer a grateful toast of tea. welcome to the race. so glad you are here. coming up, presidential polls are like buses. one comes around and then a couple of more follow. it's easy enough to lose track of the numbers on the side. i can guarantee you, however, this will not be the case. it's the first post paul-ryan bus. plus when he votes, it's about buying a man a beer, a sure way

to do that and lucky for them that foreign policy isn't playing a big year in this year's campaign because romney and ryan have the least amount of experience of any ticket since, well, ever. we are going to delve into that and more. we are getting started in the war room on current tv. we will be right back. >>"if you ever raise taxes on >>the rich, you're going to destroy our economy." not true!

right by those who gave their lives to for this country nearly 70 years ago. >> we are back inside the war room. i am jennifer granholm. despite serving seven terms in congress and sharing the house budget committee, mitt romney's running mate, paul ryan, is far from being considered a household name. but, his budget plan which calls for slashing social services, lowering the tax rate for the wealthy is pretty much a known commodity, at least to some. and it's not very popular. so, a new poll that was commissioned by the super p.a.c. priorities u.s.a. found that 62% of voters were extremely

concerned about ryan's propose the cuts to early childhood education, the same percentage were concerned about shifting the tax burden to the middle class from the wealthy. here to tell us how the pick of paul ryan is impacting the presidential race is war room regular, john whaley with heart research. welcome back into the war room. typically, we see a bump in polls after a presidential nominee picks a vice presidential candidate. in fact, we saw a different poll this week, which dr. a poll with a slight bump but not a huge bump. the president was at 45. romney at 4 september. it was a two % bump up for romney. is this typically or would you have expected a different number? >> we are supposed to see how this plays outed. this started on the 7th and just finished last night. so it's over the course where romney chose paul and so. >> you don't get the full brunt

of it? >> we are sorting that out. obama was up in a fair amount of the polls. the fact romney is up shows a little bit of a bump. >> so today is tuesday, he selected him on saturday when go we expect bell see the polls with the first full reaction? >> i like to see the polls over a few days so that they actually get sort of a nice diverse sample. i think in the next couple of days we will see polls that reflect the -- >> the bump. >> the bump if there is one. both sides are to create a narrative around who he is. >> the big place to define him in is at the moment florida what do you expect to see? do you think the democrats will

succeed in defining him as taking away your medicare successfully? >> no. i was really concerned about florida for the president because consistently what we have seen in florida swing states elsewhere and naturally older voters are some of the voters obama has the hardest time with and the ones who turn out the most. so florida seemed like a -- that would be a big challenge for the president. now, you have something where he can really create some -- a rift within this potential base of romney's to peel away some of that support among older voters. florida, almost 20% of florida citizens are over 65. >> that's pretty incredible. >> you guys will be doing polling there is what about pens? it was moving into the president's cam solidly? >> right. they were solid and they have a couple of things. one, we are going to be talking

a little bit about catholics and the fact that, you know, ryan. >> yeah. >> joe biden is the native son. he is catholic. and we have some of the same con concerns in florida, in pennsylvania. pennsylvania is the second oldest state in the country. so it seems like he will have problems there. >> so pennsylvania is one of the oldest. i with a is one of the oldest and so is west virginia. >> uh-huh. >> west virginia is red, red, red. >> it is. >> there is no way that's going to move? right? >> i don't see it actually flipping. i mean i think there could be potential there. also because of the sort of low-income issues that might be part of the pol ryan budget. >> yes. >> they have some very strong laws about protecting low-income people in west virginia. it could be an issue there. whether it will flip to blue that remains to be seen. >> let's look at a few others. wisconsin was we just talked about iowa and ohio. >> uh-huh. >> obviously, this wisconsin,

does it flip into play now because of paul ryan? >> it doesn't flip automatically. in fact, there is a model for each of the swig states and his model showedwich had a 12% chance of going to romney before the ryan pick and it will only bumps up to 20% chance. >> really. >> it's not. >> that stunning? >> it is stunning you energize the cogservative base and the frogsive. >> they have spended. paul ryan went back to wisconsin but then they spent time in eye juan. >>om they are often tied together to thedegree. >> i with a is more conservative. >> eastern iowa which has some more demographics that are tied more closely to ryan, i think that helps. >> that's where he has been since yesterday.

>> well, you know, there is all of this conversation today with the president, et cetera. he was in colorado but he was talking about wind, energy, and obviously, the ryan-romney ticket, put ryan on top. don't like subsidies to the wind industry. is that going to have an impact in iowa? >> it could. i don't know if that is going to be really top in the end of at a time. >> ohio has been close. actually t rasmussen had a poll out that showed it was tied with romney-obama, it tends to skew conservative. >> that's one where ryan sort of the redder this is where catholics are now concentrated. we have a lot catholic

representation in these places. i assume down here, it's because of hispanics. >> right. >> same thing in california but up there you have ethnic populations that are catholics. it's important here you have,' specially wisconsin, eastern iowa, northern ohio, pennsylvania potentially but joe biden flipping the other side as the native son catholic. but to the degree that paul ryan's passionate catholicism registers with some of these catholics, i think that's important. >> it was interesting to us that his catholicism cuts both ways because you have got the bishops and the nuns criticizing him over his budget and the fact that it does not have an option for the poor essentially by cutting all of the social services. on the other hand, he is so strictly right-to-life that the

bishops like that, too. it will be interesting. john whaley thank you for coming in with your insight, democratic polster with heart research. if you are a political junkie and you like your sys southern fried, chak open an old one because mudcat saunders and donnie fowler are two of the best in the business. they are entering the war room next. we will be light back.

of sununu, you're wrong. mitt romney, you're wrong. we need more teachers, not fewer teachers and more cops and more firefighters that support our [ male announcer ] the inventors of twix had a falling out, so the production of twix was divided between two separate factories. left twix factory cascades caramel and chocolate onto cookie, while right twix factory flows caramel and chocolate onto cookie. today they share nothing but a wrapper and a driveway. try both and pick a side.

um, miss ? you have hard water stains and that cleaner's not gonna cut it. you need lime-a-way. it's 4 times more effective at removing limescale than the leading bathroom cleaner. lime-a-way is specially formulated to conquer hard water stains. for lime, calcium and rust... lime-a-way is a must. vv

y heavily on facts, and he will distrust the state department. now, i have to tell you as you point out, somebody who has a lot of experiences i am for any candidate who distrusts the state department over a candidate who trusts the state department. >> that's former house speaker and presidential candidate newt gingrich explaining how he thinks mitt romney is going to conduct foreign affairs if he is elected president. two things come to mind after hearing newt's myselfings firstusings, first is he advocating a president not

have faith in his own state department? for a more grounded view on how mitt romney would can conduct fortunately policy if he were to be elected, we will turn to james man in washington d.c. a former correspondent with the los angeles times, the author of several critically acclaimed books including the new york sometimes best seller, the rice of the valuecans considered to be many as the did i have definitive account of george w. bush's war cabinet and his last book is "the obamians." mr. mann thank you for joining me inside the war room? >> good to be with you govern. >> so, you heard that little sound beside of newt gingrich. should a president distrust their own state department? >> i don't know where to start on that one. in the first place, it's kind of dangerous to say distrust all of the people who are the -- the state department is composed of

people who are out there living in countries who know the language. do some of them become overly sam pat i thinkic to the country, yeah. >> an old phenomenon in this. is the state department bureaucratic but to say you are not going to listen to the state department is crazy and dangerous. secondly, it's an inaccurate prediction of what romney will do. it's also kind of hipypocritical for gingrich because i covered gingrich in the 1990s as speaker of the house and to tell you the truth, he didn't challenge bill clinton much. there was a republican jesse % helms, who was challenging bill clinton left and right. that wasn't gingrich. i don't know where he is coming from on this. >> who knows? who knows what has happened in the interim. let's listen to a sound byte from mitt romney slamming

president obama on foreign affairs. take a listen. >> in dealings with other nations, he has given trust where it is not earned insult and apology where it was not due. >> is it fair to paint president obama as an apologist? >> it's not fair. everyone who has looked at the record, we can take apologies in two senses. really referring to an actual apology, everyone who has looked at it says they can't find it in obama's record. okay. if he is taking the broader meaning of kind of expressing regret for specific things sure, i mean not only hasbol apologized but people tend to forget. i counted with george bush that he had apologized to the chinese over a plane incident. george bush apologized after abu abgraib and on a trip to africa

if we are losing the looser definition of apology. what's wrong with that? i have problems seeing what the problem is. i don't get i apologize issue. >> i am interested in the differences between how mitt romney would lead his foreign policy endeavors. mitt romney talks as a hawk. do you think he would lead as a hawk or would his approach be similar topom president obama's? >> i have yet to see any serious concrete policy differences with the possible exception of romney's position on israel. but generally speaking i think that what we are hearing from the romney campaign now is campaign rhetoric rather than policy differences with obama. >> well, so, what do you -- what do you consider to be the biggest foreign policy threat to the u.s. in the next four years?

and will president obama handle it? will it be different from that the mitt romney from what you could read between the lines. >> the biggest pending issue would be iran's nuclear program, and romney has said that he would not shrink from using force if necessary to stop that program. but that is also obama has not ruled out the use of force. i am not sure that there is a difference there. the more long-range issue is china. and although romney has said he would declare china a currency manipulator on his first day in office, that sounds like more than it is. there are no policy or economic ramifications other than the fact that the u.s. has called china a currency manipulator and while i think that would be a good thing to do, it's -- i am not sure what flows from it, and i am not sure romney would do it. >> he could do what donald trump

said he would do, just tell those chinese to stop, you know manipulating the currency, of course. you actually say that you were surprised when researching for this book to learn how much of a details guy the president is when it comes to foreign policy. why did that surprise you? >> it surprised me because i don't think he gave any indication of that in campaign he mounted a very coherent attack on the war in iraq. he showed familiarity with policy issues, but he struck me as the kind of person who might delegate a lot of foreign policy to other people. and while he does really, it's turned out that obama, himself, is the person laying out the kind of strategy and vision on foreign policy. seems to spend quite a bit of time on it. >> it's an interesting thing to imagine what an obama doctorine would be or how a romney

doctorine however that might be would be different from an obama doctorine. obviously the obama administration has done pretty well in foreign policy at least from a non-foreign policy. i appreciate you coming inside the war room. i am holding up your book james mann author of "the obamanians." brett erlich takes digital stock of the reaction from paul ryan's election. >> coming up, i will have the internet's response to paul ryan, assuming, you know i am not attack by a bear shark. oh hiknow no. >>"if you ever raise taxes on >>the rich, you're going to destroy our economy." not true!

it's like chicken and crunchy stuff got married! i only use french's french fried onions on my crunchy onion chicken because it's america's number one brand. just minutes to make, then bake! jennifer speaks truth to power. >>the bottom line is we need an amendment. >>now it's your turn. connect with "the war room" jennifer granholm. >>it's a call to arms. make your voice heard. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> our visit to crazy town today. let's take a listen to romney's surrogate and former new hampshire john sununu acting very calmly on cnn. >> soledad, stop this. all you are doing is mimicking the stuff that comes out of the

white house and gets repeated on the democratic blog boards out there. >> i am telling you. what politifacts tell you. >> i feel the report right here. on your forehead when you do this. >> i am saying how impossible it is to argue with people like that, especially people who ignore facts and for having such a hard time coming up with the phrase, blog boards. we dub thee mayor john sununu of crazy town. >> from rural maine brett erlich has charged fearlessly into territory that few reporters would dare to tread. to get the raw story on paul ryan, he is journeying into the mow most dangerous frontier yet

the internet. bretts talking now. shh >> what's behind me and how can i summon a unicorn? because to give you the most raw unfiltered reaction to the paul ryan vp choice i have come to the internet. it's the internet report. >> the internet isn't just full of 13-year-olds high on pixie sticks but pictures of paul ryan showing how he has aged. no short not at all. the internet is also wonder if paul ryan, the sweetheart went to this guy, tony huml, a man so dreamy no one told him he need add vowel. an internet is home to the single weirdest thing paul ryan ever said. >> let's pass a bill to cover the moon with yogurt. >> we will not provide context

but show you and being spokesperson by john stamos. >> the internet's proudest achievement so far has been paul ryan goss ling the ryan goss ling hey, girl where the star says everything a girl has always wanted to hear and adapt it for the right-wing policy wonk in all of us with such winning tweets as, hey, girl i don't believe in global warming, but i do believe in snuggles. and, hey, girl. the only social security you need is having me as arm candy. you see paul ryan, you see the internet knows everything about you except, you know your last 10 years of tax returns. we could use a little help with that. i am done talking now. unicorn. away. >> oh, my, my my my, that brett erlich. thank you for joining us here on the war room. we have lots of